A Familiar Mask
by Thespurgin
Summary: She called for a divine, beautiful, and powerful familiar. He was alone, banished to the abyss between the stars by his brother's treachery. A fateful ritual will intervene in both their fates, and a mask will become... familiar. One-Shot, with potential to expand. A challenge to you.
1. The Exile and the Zero

In the vastness between planets, a faint gleam flew. A mask, forged of a shining gold-esque material that seemed to radiate with it's own inner light and cast with the effigy of a figure with arms outstretched pressed into the front. Were it close enough, one would even say it breathed... and they wouldn't necessarily be wrong, for this lost artifact was the legendary Great Kanohi Mask of Life, named for that over which it held power.

It was said that the great beings, entities older than the world itself and makers of the great spirit Mata-Nui, who watched over all matoran, toa, and turaga cast the living mask to bring the great spirit to life. Many people have sought to unravel the mystery of the mask's legend, but even the most learned turaga, failed to gain so much as a hint of the true story of the mask. Even now, no one knows the truth, save the great beings themselves, the Great Spirit, or perhaps the mask itself. For millennia the mask of life remained sequestered away, known of only by the guardians to which it was bound.

All that changed, however, when Mata-Nui's brother Makuta grew jealous and treacherously cast his brother into an accursed sleep from which he could not be awoken. A thousand years of chaos and suffering followed in which countless dark factions vied for power, leaving the matoran desperate to even survive, let alone think of fighting back. Makuta's rein may well have continued forever had not a team of toa seven toa, including the takanuva, first toa of light, defeated Makuta and released the Great Spirit from his accursed sleep. Yet the great spirit could not be roused, for the injuries he had taken during his sleep and when Makuta were grievous, and his state continued to decline. The only hope the matoran had was the legend of the mask of life.

In the end, a newborn team of toa, untested, untried, but no less bound by destiny as any other team found the mask of life. With the noble and selfless sacrifice of Matoro, their team's toa of ice, the mask of life was triggered and the Great Spirit healed. Sadly, even in death Makuta refused to be defeated, and bound himself to the body of his brother even as he awoke, allowing him to imprison Mata-Nui inside the mask of life and cast it out amongst the stars.

This was where the mask now drifted, soaring through the abyss with the soul of a world locked inside it. A legacy of betrayal and prison to an exiled spirit.

* * *

Far away, in the in the Tristain Academy of Magic, resting in the center of a wide plain in the country of Tristain, the smallest country in the continent of Halkegenia, it was spring. All the first year students were undergoing a right of passage known as the springtime familiar summoning ritual, wherein a young mage must summon their familiar to them or be considered a failure as a mage.

Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere, youngest daughter of the noble house of Valliere, is one such young mage. Known as "Louise the Zero" by her peers, the pink-haired adolescent had yet to complete a spell successfully since her initiation. Everything she attempted just... blew up. That comes with a Stigma, a mark that weighs heavily on it's owner, and it showed in the maiden's face.

She was worried. She'd sworn to Kirche and her silent comrade Tabitha that she'd summon the best familiar of everyone there, but she'd never cast a successful spell in her life! What's more, Tabitha and Kirche (AKA the Kirche the Ardent, the Zerbst, cow, etc.) had summoned a _dragon_ and a freaking dog sized flame-tailed salamander! What could someone like her, who'd never even determined which of the four elements she might be aligned with, summon something able to exceed such powerful elemental familiars?

Nevertheless, she wouldn't flee or panic. She refused to. She was a Valliere for founder's sake! Her mother was Karin of the Heavy Wind, the most feared battlemage of the country! Let them mock her failures, but never her courage! She steeled herself a final time, and stood in the clearing formed in the middle of the small forest of students. A cloud drifted past, and she followed it, relaxing ever so slightly... but the brief interlude was short lived.

Students began to whisper, and that Zerbst smiled. "With your words last night, I'm sure you'll summon something amazing, right Louise?" The comment shook the girl, but she forced herself to portray an air of nonchalance. She would _not_ appear weak to them.

"Of course!" the pinkette laughed, her own words sounding hollow in her throat. Her wand shivered in her grip.

"Please" she whispered, "let this work..." then raised her wand to the brilliant blue sky. Her eyes closed in concentration as the aria for the summoning spell, spilt unbidden from her lips.

**"To my servant that exists somewhere within the ends of this vast universe!..."**

* * *

In the emptiness between the stars, a light shone green and luminous like a newborn star, the unearthly light reflecting off the radiant gold of a single mask. The great spirit Mata-Nui stirred in the depths of it's fathomless eyeholes, hearing a voice that could not exist in the emptiness.

**"...To my eternal familiar spirit! He who is meant for me, you who are holy, beautiful, and most powerful of all, I beg of thee to answer my call!"**

The spirit of Mata-Nui smiled. The voice was a strange one, so much like that of his children, and yet it was not. It was no matoran calling to him; no learned turaga or great toa calling him from beyond space and time, but a youngling barely awakened to the world.

**"I appeal to you from my deepest part of my heart, as one bound by the chains of fate!"**

The light was growing rapidly, and if he did not use the power of the mask, he would reach it in moments. Desperate to avoid yet another trap like the one his brother laid, the mask of life and it's inhabitant soul began gathering the power needed to avoid the light. He'd already been thrown out of his very body by his brother, and had no reason to trust this voice. Better to be adrift in space than held at the whims of someone he barely knows of! His people still needed him, and he swore he'd return and free them from his brother's tyranny... but as he heard her, for indeed she could be nothing but a woman, he paused. Listening to the hope; the desperation in the girl's voice, Mata-Nui, guiding deity and caretaker of all matoran, felt his heart go out to the voice. Here was another little one in need of his care, no different then one of his own children praying for his help.

**"_Please..._ Answer my Guidance, and appear!"**

The viridian orb of light reached him, and he made his choice.

* * *

Louise de la Valliere swept her wand down in the final arc of the spell, and everything exploded.

Groans and coughing sounded across the field as people attempted to gather their wits. That was a_ lot_ bigger than any of the Zero's other explosions...

People began calling out for others, making sure everyone was okay. "So, it will come to this after all...!" "-cough- Why am I not surprised..." "All that, -gak- and it _still_ blows up?!" "Are you -cough- alright, Montmorency?"

The young blond in question was coughing, her hands over her mouth. "Yes, It's just the -cough- just the dust..." she began, before falling silent. As if on command, the smoke began to dissipate, revealing the pinkette standing untouched.

"Montmorency dear?" Guiche asked. In response, she pointed towards the still clearing smoke. He turned, squinting slightly. Was that a glint of gold?

The dust cleared farther, and indeed it was. Before the Zero lay a mask, and a strange one too. It looked to be carved of gold or some kind of gold-hued stone, but melded into it were strange shapes and edges that did not look natural to stone either. It was almost laughable that Louise could manage to summon something as pathetic as a _mask_ after all that boasting, but that seemed to be the case.

The silence was deafening as Louise gaped at the mask, horror and sorrow welling up in her. 'I failed... I really have no magic at all; all I can do are explosions; I can't even get the familiar summoning spell right!'

The girl's internal panic attack was disrupted a moment later by the Zerbst tactless input. "I'm not sure what to think Louise." she said flatly, though her lips were faintly curled in amusement. "It's certainly a unique familiar, and I _suppose_ if you like ancient relics it would have a kind of special beauty, but I'm not feeling the power and holiness here."

As if a switch had been flipped, the see of uniforms around her began to rustle with the sound of snickers and barely stifled laughter. Louise's horror was quickly replaced with ire at her peers apparent mocking, and turned to her teacher. "Professor Colbert, please allow me to perform the ritual again!"

The aging man paused for a second, leaning on his staff, before shaking his head. "The ritual cannot be performed once you have managed to successfully summon your familiar Miss Valliere. I'm afraid I cannot."

"But why?"

"The ritual is a coming of age, and the familiar that is summoned will define the mage's life from that point on. To attempt another summoning after a successful one is a dismissal and disgrace to the ritual itself. I'm afraid what you summoned..." he replied with a hint of apology "is what you get."

"B-but this doesn't even look like a proper familiar! Familiars have to be alive right? How can a mask be a familiar?!"

"Miss Louise, a Familiar can be any number of things, and while it has not happened before, an unusual mask like this is far from the most unique familiar ever summoned. Regardless of what you'd rather have, it is decided. That mask is your familiar."

Louise opened her mouth for another argument, but thought better of it, looking down towards the mask at her feet. The fire fled from her in an instant and Kirche thought, just for a moment, that perhaps Louise had had enough. She'd never seen her nemesis so disconsolate. She'd seen Louise snippy, arrogant, annoyed, angry, and perhaps even sad, but this was like looking at a broken mustang... a wild, fiery spirit beaten down and turned into a subservient creature that could barely be considered a shadow of what it once was.

Being a fiery spirit in her own right, the Zerbst felt a twinge of guilt. A pause followed, then the professor spoke again.

"Miss Valliere, please complete the ritual."

"Yes Professor." She mumbled, bending down to pick up the strangely carven visgae and look at it closely. Absently flipping it over, she glanced at the underside of the mask noticing the hexagonal text printed therein.

"Any time Miss Valliere."

She grimaced and flipped it over again, before commiting to a lengthy sigh.

"I'm sorry Professor."

Holding the mask up, she began the chant for the final stage of the ritual.

**"My name is Louise Francoise Le Blanc de la Valliere..."** She began, and touched her wand to the mask's forehead. **"To the pendant that holds the five elemental powers. Bless this one, and yield unto me the familiar to which I c-called."**

And with that, she planted a chaste kiss on the mask's center, where she assumed the mouthpiece would be.

The silence was deafening, but at least the Zerbst wasn't snickering behind her back. A long moment later, she withdrew and sank to her knees, the mask lying before her on the grass. Thoughts pounded through her head: the shame she would face from her family at this... of all her siblingss, she alone was a failure as a mage; nothing she cast worked, and now she had a mask for a familiar!

"Congratulations Miss Valliere, for what it's worth, you successfully completed the spell to bind your familiar to you, and ritual to summon your familiar."

"Congratulations Louise," Kirche said, stepping up, a forced smiled on her face. "I guess I can't really call you Zero anymore. You managed to pull off the bind familiar spell without an explosion after all."

Louise turned her head and gazed blankly at her tormentor. Was that a hint of sincerity she heard?

"Don't bother Zerbst..." she said, drooping again. "You can stop tormenting me. You win. I'm a failure as a mage, and there is no future for me save to be a political tool to be married off now."

Kirche winced internally. "Now now, where's that snotty arrogance washboard?" she said lightly. "You did finish the ritual, and-"

She didn't get to finish her sentence, as Louise had snapped to her feet and was thumbing her wand in front of the busty Germanian's nose with a cold wrath in her eye. "Why. Do. You. Care?" She hissed. "You've gotten what you wanted haven't you? Our rivalry is over. You won. Stop rubbing my nose in the dirt and leave me in peace. Can't you even do that...?" she trailed off, fighting to hold back tears.

Kirche was silent for a moment, uncertain if she should risk moving with that stick, the stick Louise used to make things_ blow up_ hovering in front of her face. She was still contemplating how to resolve the standoff when she saw it.

"L-Louise..."

"Don't. Just don't say anything. I thought Germanian Nobles might have some hint of decency towards their defeated enemies what with your barbarian, war-like background, but I suppose I was being too optimistic wasn't I?"

Guiche stepped forwards. "Louise...-"

Louise snapped to face him, "Shut up Guiche! I'm not going to let you take me into your arms like all the other girls you woo. I'm a Valliere, and failed mage or not, worthless noble or not, I will not be thought of as a damsel to be drawn into the lap of the hero you style yourself to be!"

"Miss Valliere."

"What?!"

She howled, spinning to the professor and the assembled student body, who cringed back reflexively. As they did though, Louise noticed that many of them were gaping in awe, along with their familiars. It was Tabitha who answered. "Mask floating."

She turned around. The mask; her familiar, _was_ floating, and of it's own accord no less. No wings, no gusts of wind, not even the faint magical trail left by a bugbear's levitation. How?

The mask glowed red hot, and had they been able to see the underside of the mask, they would have seen runes brand themselves into the unnaturally smooth surface of the thing. Almost as quickly as the heat appeared it vanished, leaving nothing but wisps of steam which disappeared almost as quickly as the heat. Then the mask began to glow... not red hot as it did before, but with a golden hued that seemed to cover everything. What was it-?

As if it heard her thoughts, the mask's hue seemed to shimmer slightly, and she felt drawn to it. She stepped forwards, only to stop. Gasps sounded behind her, one of them definitely the Zerbst's, and how she wanted to join them... but she could not. She had no voice with which to do so.; the very breath stolen from her lungs by the sight she beheld.

Before her eyes, the grass of the field grew a half an inch toward the mask, as if reaching for it... and that was just the beginning. Directly below and around the mask, the grass was _growing_. It was like nothing she'd ever seen. A few rare earth mages could fertilize the soil and allow plants to grow faster, and there are a few potions on the market that act as a growth formula for plants, but neither caused foliage, let alone something like _grass_ sprout up like some kind of weed! The individual blades of grass were twisted, meshing, curling, and reaching for the mask above like they were alive!

"Brimir preserve us..." someone whispered.

As they stood silently, the grass finally reached the mask and seemed to shift. Instead of growing towards it, now the vegetation grew outwards, forming a vaguely humanoid shape built using the mask as a headpiece. Grass blades wound together to resemble muscle fibers and ligaments in a manner almost perversely akin to that of a tall man, but it didn't stop there.

When the green mass of a body had finally finished taking shape (a shape, Louise noted, that seemed humanoid but disproportionate to a true human, and rather skeletal as well), the mass of dirt and vegetation... _changed_. It started with a faint glow, akin to that of the stars at night, spreading from the mask down across the unnaturally suspended plant matter, and while they could not see through the glow itself, they could see that in it's wake lingered not green plant life, but the same gleaming substance as the mask. They couldn't call it metal, for indeed it could not be called such. It seemed more a cross between steel and stone, but with the pliancy of cloth in places and the smoothness of flesh.

The light faded away, and the silence became defeaning. Where once stood a mask, a towering entity neither golem, man, or beast stood before them. It's body seemed... not quite skeletal, in spite of the several holes leading clear through it's body. Hands, not gauntlets but fists made purely of that strange stone-metal that seemed to pervade it's form rested at the end of each arm, and curving ceremonial spikes rose from each shoulder in the shape of an upwards facing half-moon.

The figure was silent for a long moment, then with an inhuman groan stretched, the faint grinding sound of metal on metal mixing with no small number of popping sounds. It settled into a ready stance for a moment, regarding those before it... then stepped back, raising an eyebrow. Wait, the mask _moved_?!

With a click, the segment of the mask- or was it some kind of face? An enchanted helmet perhaps?- between the two engraved legs disappeared, and to the astonishment of all, the being spoke.

"Louise Francoise Le Blanc de la Valliere?" it asked, parroting the words she'd spoken before.

"Y-yes?"

"You are the one who summoned me correct?"

"Y-yes." She replied, slowly gaining confidence.

"Then I must say I am honored to meet you. To you who called me here from my lonely exile between the stars, I am most grateful." He said, nodding solemnly.

"Ah, y-yes, you are welcome." 'Between the stars? What is he talking about?' she wondered frantically. "May I request your name as well Ser-?"

"I am known by many names, Protector, Hau, the Great Spirit, _Brother._.." he spat the last name, as if the very word was distasteful to him... or maybe the memories that came with it "...but that name fondest to me is that given me by my dear matoran who once lived within me. For them, and I carry You may call me Mata-Nui."

* * *

**And that's all folks! It's about time I got back into writing too, what with the semi-hiatus on my other fics. **

**This will be the first bionicle crossover with Familiar of Zero, and as of now it is planned to be a one-shot. That said, feel free to try your own hand at it, or nag me to continue it. Who knows if enough people are intruiged something can be worked out.  
**

**Thoughts/Constructive Criticism/Comments? Toss me a review!**


	2. A Short Addendum

Hello Everyone, this is your author speaking.

First of all, I want to sincerely apologize for upsetting any of the people who may have originally thought this was a continuation of the first chapter. It is not.

Rather, I felt that it would be better to answer the concerns of all my reviewers at once, and voice my concerns regarding their -ahem- 'demands.'

Truth be told, I originally mocked this up as a kind of reassurance that I am capable of writing at all, sort of a slap to my own face. I had never intended to truly complete it, though that's not because it's a bad idea. Rather, the reason I am aprehensive to the thought of continuing this fic is because I never actually covered more than the first 3 episodes of Familiar of Zero.

Yep. That's all the grounding I have in the FoZ universe, aside from fanfic.

You can understand why I'm not to certain about your calls for "MOAR!"

So that leaves us with three options to fulfilling your requisitions. Door number 1 is me spending the better half of a year pouring over all possible materials regarding FoZ until I feel confident enough that I can do the seed story proud, then begin writing at my agonizingly slow pace of 3-4k words a week, max. Door number 2 is that you, dear readers, take this one shot as it was intended, an inspiration and challenge to you. Pass it along, and get a competition going if you want. Let this be spread by the masses and proliferate. Law of Averages says at least one of them will have to be as good or better than my little cross-shot. Finally, door Number 3 is the adoption of this fic by someone willing to take up the torch and do it justice like I can't. Someone familiar with both the FoZ and Bionicle universes. Naturally this option will require networking to find willing and skilled individuals to do so, which may or may not be rare.

That's a basic summary of the situation. R&R for your opinions on what route will be the most viable.

Thank you all for your time, and again my apologies at this misleading post.


End file.
